


Blood on The Feathers

by Katherien_0_Corazon



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, The Amazing World of Gumball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Magic, Blood and Violence, Character Death, Daemon Prejudice, Daemon Separation, Daemon Settling, Daemon Touching, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Murder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26697415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherien_0_Corazon/pseuds/Katherien_0_Corazon
Summary: Her wings were bony and her feathers were stained with blood. Gumball couldn't see her face, but he knew Androktasia was smiling.A condor for today. Tomorrow she would be another scavenger, another predator, another murderer.He knew that she would be abominable.
Relationships: Darwin Watterson & Gumball Watterson, Rob/Gumball Watterson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Blood on The Feathers

_«Just get up, breathe and live, day after day, Gumball Watterson. It's easy, isn't it?_

_Don't smile as if there are still a thousand lies under your tongue, and a thousand more to be told._

_Let it not seem that you have laughed under the veil of a white autumn, on the remains of dead spring, and have glimpsed so many lives lost in the frosty mud._

_Do not suspect that you have killed »_

He took the crudely written letter with the end of a sharp branch, then drowned it in the dirty and icy waters of the lagoon.

Androktasia, a yellow-faced vulture with bony wings, perched on his shoulder, staring at the ruined paper with a mixture of nostalgia and revulsion. It made him feel dirty, pitiful, like the horrible worm that he knew he was, but only his soul knew in full depth.

No one should read it, ever again.

The first snow of winter was beginning, which was always the harshest and most cruel, so Gumball had to hurry and get home before losing all visibility in a white world.

That's right, when he walk through the door he would see his family with a grumpy expression, then make a sarcastic and critical comment about anything that occurs to he at the time, from the snowfall to the number of hot dogs with which his father would choke on the approaching Christmas.

Then, depending on the situation and the desire of the universe to screw him up, a whole plot worthy of a cartoon may or may not develop out of nowhere, ending with him and his family running a marathon to prevent the school from exploding or something for the style.

Gumball smiled wryly.

'In that case, I'd better go home, because later on we won't be able to drive Santa's sleigh in the rain of acid and cheese muffins' he thought with an ill-concealed laugh, which fell the next second.

He sat down again, this time with a thoughtful expression.

He gazed at the golden necklace that still remained tangled in one of his hands, seeing the memory of a tall, stocky and lanky man who only a couple of hours ago had run through the bush of trees and earth that was that forest. "Alexander" was his name, if we assume that the engraving on the necklace was in his own name.

"It could be his father, son, or brother" she murmured, exuding delight.

"No, it is impossible for a thing like him to have a family, 'Tasia" a smile that, being a bird, would have to be impossible, split Androktasia's beak just those words filled his ears.

"You have a family," she replied almost silently, then shut up completely.

"Alexander" wandered through roots awkwardly, with the same face Grandpa Franky wore when the topic of conversation turned to "policemen," "prosecutors," or "arrest warrants," with a prominent briefcase in tow. Therefore, it was easy to assume that this man did not walk in very legal matters, nor did he lead a full life, nor was there anyone who would shed more than one tear if he were to leave this world.

His pulse didn't tremble too much when, seeing the man sitting down to rest by a lake, he approached from behind with a red knife.

"Even if I washed it, it would never stop having that color, you know? And it's also a lot of effort" Gumball complained, knowing well that the man stopped listening long ago. "I'm sorry you had to die from a dirty knife, but what did you expect from a guy who assaults and kills others just to rob them? At least I had the grace to aim for your head, that killed you instantly"

Unanswered.

The golden dust still swirled around the corpse, at times forming the silhouette of a grim-faced raccoon.

Gumball wondered why, of all the criminals he had met, he was the only one with a predatory dæmon.

_(He could almost hear his psychologist tell him that there was still time, that Androktasia had not yet settled, that it could still be changed._

_Gumball knew that it was nothing more than a futile hope, that, in the end, she would turn into something abominable. Vulture, hyena or snake, if she was very compassionate, a raven. Later, his family would wonder why his Dæmon took the form of the creature that fed on the eyes of fallen soldiers, which followed the march of the troops on their way to a losing battle)._

"Look, even if it's dirty it's still a high quality knife!" he said, showing the long, sharp weapon. "As my mom always says, 'the sharper it is, the better it cuts.' Although I think she's referring to the scissors she uses when she needs to enlarge dad's clothes."

Silence.

"Hmm ... I think I should stop talking to corpses and go home to my family ~!"

A single tear spilled from her smiling face.

Androktasia, turned into Mamba, coiled around his neck, leaning on his shoulders, as he left the place.

•••

Upon arriving home, Gumball saw everyone already tucked into their beds and a bowl of roast meat on the kitchen table.

Androktasia, relieved, released the domestic cat form that she always wore when spending time with his family. Turning instead into a splendid Egyptian Vulture, perched on Gumball's shoulder.

He opened the briefcase his most recent victim was carrying, finding things that were surely worth murdering for. Maybe not money as such, but jewelry, a lot of it. Brilliant amethysts that made themselves look like stars at the top of the pile, compact lazulites, remarkable despite lacking any radiance, sapphires of all categories, from brilliant star sapphires to luxurious violet sapphires, not to mention rubies, which according to a pirate gemology page were a type of sapphire.

As the cherry on the cake he found, larger than any of the others, a majestic pink princess cut diamond.

He impressed himself with how much he knew about precious gems, although the reasons were not something to be proud of.

He ate absent-mindedly as he watched the television and got ready for bed. It did not bother him at all that he had at least a hundred thousand dollars in stolen jewelry. Not only because he already had experience with Elmore's incompetent police force, but because he was prepared for these kinds of setbacks as well.

From the beginning he had accepted that the result of the robberies would not always be cash, and that as such gems and precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, etc.) were difficult to sell and raised many suspicions, so he needed a safe space to hide them in what he was trying to gain from them.

The perfect place was undoubtedly the "basement", or better known as the gloomy secret passage that only he knew.

He discovered it one day when, unprepared, he leaned against a random wall. He was seriously lucky that there was no one else around, and that apparently his family did not notice the moved wood or the disappearance of some objects in his room. Upon entering and inspecting the place he found various items of interest, all belonging to the former owners or even the owners before those owners. They had a thick layer of dust on them and most were broken or too old to be functional, but they certainly had at least a shred of monetary value.

It goes without saying that the smallest and most transportable ones had already been sold or destroyed in some of his robberies, but the largest ones (the mattress, the shelves, the various chairs) still remained in place with Gumball without knowing very well what do with them.

Anyway, he hid the briefcase between some dusty boxes and resurfaced, making sure not to leave anything in sight in case his family discovered the room early.

And speaking of his family.

He was not surprised that his parents had not called him or gone looking for him, as his long absences had already become a common theme. Sure, the first few times his mother had reprimanded him and almost freaked out when one day he arrived after midnight, but nowadays they saw it as something normal. Surely they assumed that he was at a friend's house or with Penny and her Nelvara, the only one who still had certain shades of doubt was Darwin, since he knew his brother enough to know that this was rare.

Just before going up to his bedroom, and already wearing pajamas, his gaze shifted again to the gold necklace that he refused to remove from his wrist.

How did this all begin?

When did he lose hia fear of the dense sea of trees that he always saw through your window? When did he have the courage to remove the old, rusty knife from the keepsake box? Why?

Ah yes, for money.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a draft that has been archived for a while and I wanted to publish. Tell me your opinion.


End file.
